V/A - Tantrum (1990, Cocktail)

I'm damn-near downright surprised that no other sites have put this one on the table.  Perhaps Tantrum's schizoid album jacket scared some folks off, but personally I regard it as something of an asset.  This eighteen song platter is way more Flipside than Maximum Rock N Roll, and I wouldn't have done it the other way around in a million years.  Though it's emphasis was local (L.A. and surrounding environs) Tantrum strangely epitomized where the whole alt/punk/grunge thing was headed, not long before Nirvana would push that whole ball of wax kicking and screaming into the pop stratosphere.

The proceedings here aren't exclusively balls-to-the-wall punk, but if that was the draw there are some seriously hot practitioners in attendance, specifically White Flag, Wreckage, the Instigators, and Artistic Decline, not to mention like-minded acts of the female persuasion including Frightwig and the ever popular L7 who offer the instant classic, "Bite the Wax Tadpole." I Love You, who I've enthusiastically endorsed on the pages, are present with an early incarnation of a song that would later materialize on their first album, in all it's fuzzy, wha-wah'ed glory.  Pat Ruthenmmear and his Death Folk will kill two glorious minutes for you, Spiderbaby weave a chiming and chilly goth-punk tapestry in the guise of "Wake Up," while the Groovie Ghoulies update a certain Men Without Hats standard.  And if there was any band on Tantrum that perfectly dovetailed with the aforementioned record sleeve (in all it's glorious, bonkers abandon) the award would certainly go to Celebrity Skin, whose "Radiation Man" is about as avant as most of you would ever care to get.

01. Ultra Violet Eye - Bohemian Weight
02. I Love You - Jesus
03. Celebrity Skin - Ratt Fink
04. Haunted Garage - My Disciple
05. L7 - Bite the Wax Tadpole
06. White Flag - Zero Hour
07. Instigators - The Blood Is On Your Hands
08. Frightwig - 38 Special
09. Wreckage - Weird Woman
10. Celebrity Skin - Radiation Man
11. Pigmy Love Circus - Broken Lady
12. Christy McCool - Neal's Deal With Meals
13. The Death Folk - Jack
14. Groovie Ghoulies - Pop Goes the World
15. Spiderbaby - Wake Up
16. The Rails - Miss Rome Stays Home
17. Tony Gilkyson - Wedding Day
18. Artistic Decline - Will I Ever Learn

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